Dive Brief:
- Tesco warned that its full year earnings will be much, much worse than forecast just three months ago.
- The world's second-largest retailer, which is reeling from falling sales, growing competition, and a headline-grabbing accounting scandal, said it expects profit will reach about $2.2 billion - roughly half the size of August's forecast.
- Shares in England's largest grocer plummeted on the news, reaching their lowest point in 17 years.
Dive Insight:
Let's look for the silver lining here, shall we? How about this: that $2.2 billion figure is an expected profit number, not an expected loss number. That's something, isn't it?
But let's not look too deeply at that lining, because then we would start wondering what analysts are most likely wondering: how much of the company's earnings can now be traced to those businesses, like Dunnhumby, which are on the selling block? And just what will Tesco do for revenue when they're gone?